Bangladesh

Crowds at party offices as election campaign opens

Article published on the 2008-11-26 Latest update 2008-11-26 16:50 TU

Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina upon her arrival in Dhaka, 6 November
(Photo: Reuters)

Hundreds of would-be candidates on Wednesday besieged the offices of Bangladesh's main political parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on the day after campaigning began for the 29 December general election. The vote will be the first in seven years and will put an end to the caretaker government appointed by the military two years ago.

"The headquarters of both the parties are thronged by the people who are expecting to get nominations," reports correspondent Sayed Kamaluddin from Dhaka.

He told RFI that the Awami League has a lead over the BNP because they agreed to take part in the election even before the date was changed, and it has already started filing nomination papers.

The military sacked the coalition government led by the BNP Khaleda Zia in 2006 after months of violence between the two main parties' supporters.

Khaleda Zia and Awami League Sheik Hasina Wajed were both exiled and accused of crimes, including complicity in murder and tax evasion, but have since returned to the country.

Both parties have demanded that emergency regulations introduced in 2006 be ended as soon as the nomination papers are handed out. The authorities have promised to do so, but remain vague as to when.

"They’re not saying anything in definite form," said Kamaluddin. "In fact, the army chief yesterday [Tuesday] said that he has requested the chief adviser to withdraw the emergency rule before the election takes place and the chief adviser earlier had said similar things but nobody has said anything specifically."

Nominations must be submitted by 30 November.

The caretaker government had promised to tackle the country's rampant corruption, but it has not been altogether successful.

"They tried to achieve too many things in too little period of time," said Kamaluddin. "People think that they should have gone selectively and tried some big fishes, and tried them very quickly, so that they could have achieved better results. But they have, in fact, arrested hundreds of people, mostly politicians and businessmen, on corruption charges.”

"The anti-corruption commission has not been able to frame charges against most of those who have been arrested or who have been accused of corruption," he added.